Closed or Open?: Weimar Day 4 (24 Sep 2013)

Now here’s the thing. When we planned our Weimar days, we looked to see what was closed on Mondays knowing that Monday is often museum-closed day in Germany, and made sure we went to those on Sunday. So, for example, Goethe National Museum was closed on Monday but open Sunday, while Goethe’s Gartenhaus in Park an der Ilm was open both days. We decided to do our daytrip on Monday, thinking that our main aim was to see the towns and countryside rather than their museums. So far so good, until we got to Tuesday …

And set off for the Park an der Ilm and the various historical sites in and around it. One by one we found them closed … Goethe’s Gartenhaus, the Bauhaus site Haus am Horn, and Goethe’s Römisches Haus, though our travel guide did suggest some of them would be open. We didn’t mind so much about the Goethe sites as we felt we had learnt and seen a lot about him, but were disappointed about the Bauhaus site. However, we reasoned, there was still our planned visit to the Bauhaus Museum. Meanwhile, we were becoming concerned about Liszt-Haus which was also in the park environs but, hallelujah, it was open.

Liszt-Haus

Once again we used the audioguide which, like many of the sites we visited, was included in the admission. Liszt lived in Weimar for over 30 years on and off, but was based in what is now known as Liszt-Haus from 1869 until his death in 1886, though of course he continued to travel, giving concerts and masterclasses.

It was an excellent tour. The house, built in 1798/9 and remodelled in 1819, is apparently a good example of Weimar Classicism. It was the court gardeners’ house, then in the mid 1850s had been used as a studio by artist Friedrich Preller the Elder. Liszt was provided the upper floor – really only 4-5 rooms – by the Grand Duke Carl Alexander. With wonderful foresight, the Grand Duke declared, within days of Liszt’s death, that nothing must be touched, reasoning that Liszt’s fans would want to pay homage to him. Consequently, most of the furniture, pianos and objects in the house did belong to and were used by Liszt. This was not the case at Goethe’s house.

We learnt about Liszt’s friendship with and support of his contemporary Richard Wagner; their falling out over Wagner’s affair with Liszt’s daughter Cosima, whom Wagner did eventually marry; and their reconciliation. We heard about Liszt’s masterclasses, and most interestingly that he was such a popular and charismatic figure that he is the most visually represented man of the 19th century. Presumably this is right – and if it is, we suggest you remember it for your next trivia night! You never know when such information will come in handy.

More closures

Then it was onto the Bauhaus museum, which we had passed the day before, as it is on the Theatreplatz. It’s a lovely looking building but, guess what. Yes, it was closed! Now that really was disappointing.

However, Weimar is not known as museum city for nothing, so it wasn’t as though we had no good options left. We surely did. On the way to the next one we decided to stop in at the Stadtkirche St Peter and Paul which is famous for its large Lucas Cranach the Elder altarpiece. We’d passed the church many times, and hadn’t stopped as it looked like a construction site with the exterior being worked on, but given we had time, we decided to go inside. Guess what? Half the church interior was blocked off and in place of the altarpiece was a large hanging print of it. Oh well, we made a donation to the restoration fund and moved on to …

Stadtschloss

Many German cities, as you probably know, have a Stadtschloss: they are/were the palaces of the local ruling family. In Weimar, that family was of course Anna Amalia, Karl August, and descendants (and those who preceded them of course).

The current Stadtschloss was rebuilt in 1789, using some of the original stonework, after the palace had been destroyed by fire in 1774 when Karl August was a teenager. It was he who commissioned Goethe to rebuild it in 1789. The ducal family returned in 1803, when two of the three planned wings were completed. A fourth wing enclosing the courtyard, which had not been part of the original plan, was added in the early 20th century.

Once again, we did the audioguide and enjoyed a tour that took us through the museum’s art collection as well as some of the palace’s most significant rooms which were carefully designed by Goethe and his architects, including Heinrich Gentz, in neoclassical style.

We saw works by Dürer and Lucas Cranach. Sue was particularly fascinated by a particularly Thuringian style of Annunciation featuring unicorns. The Museum also has a collection from the Weimar School of Painters showing their response to the major art movements of the late 19th to early 20th centuries, such as Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism, and the Barbizon School. We knew few of the artists but certainly recognised the influences of painters like Renoir, Van Gogh and the plein-air work of Corot.

There were two well-known French artists represented – a Monet painting of Rouen Cathedral and Rodin’s sculpture, Bronze Age. Harry Graf Kessler – he of Cranach Press – was director of the art collection from 1903-6.

Fine dining

Before we left Australia, we booked ourselves one fine dining experience for the trip – at the one Michelin star Anna Amalia Gourmet Restaurant in Weimar’s oldest hotel, the Hotel Elephant. Dressed up in the best holiday finery we could muster, we presented ourselves at the restaurant at 7pm and were treated to a truly wonderful meal, served gorgeously by two young enthusiastic women, a knowledgeable sommelier, and an efficient but very pleasant female maître d’hôtel. The food was wonderful, but it would be impossible to describe it all – there are a couple of photos in the slideshow. We were also introduced to an intriguing aperitif, L’Hermitage Pineau des Charentes AC Giboin Borderies/Cognac which we understood is a blend of partly fermented grape must and Cognac eau-de-vie. It started sweet-ish but had a dry finish. Delicious.

It’s Germany

Who said Germans have no sense of humour? We have found that they can laugh at themselves as much as anyone – and twice this day they laughed at their tendency to over-complicate things, by shrugging their shoulders, smiling and saying, “it’s Germany”. The first was the Liszt-Haus attendant answering Len’s question about the system for the bag lockers, and the second was the sommelier responding to our question about wine classification in Germany. Bourgogne’s system is child’s play by comparison.

Three-words

LEN: Aristocracy, Patrons, Art
SUE: Geschlossen, Grandeur, Arts

and the stills…

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